Discovery and Case Management

Our discussion of U.S. discovery will be summary, and as with aggregate litigation will mainly aim at making sure you understand the scope and implications of this exceptional aspect of U.S. litigation. Compared to a standard U.S. course, we will not go deep into the individual rules or specific discovery tools, although you should have a general understanding of each. Instead, we focus on something that is self-evident to sophisticated U.S. clients but often counterintuitive to unsophisticated or non-U.S. clients - the sometimes burdensome and intrusive obligations imposed by U.S. discovery are not optional, but are an essential part of the U.S. litigation and hence regulatory system. Failure to comply in good faith can have devastating consequences. We address privileges, which can have divergent application when applied to non-U.S. legal professionals, and focus on sanctions that can arise from breaching the duty to preserve evidence when litigation is pending and the even greater sanctions that arise from wilfull destruction of evidence. Again, our somewhat spare WordCloud will provide a reliable guide to what you are expected to know.